Micro View
If I attend a professional association dinner, I’m going to introduce myself as Your Computer Lady but I’m going to talk sports, make a joke about the rubber chicken, ask about Ron’s daughters or listen to the horror story about the building project in Tucson that one of my architect friends is working on. If someone asks me a computer question, I’ll give them an answer. Hopefully the person sitting beside them will listen in and think, “Oh, that’s a good answer. Pamela’s knows a thing or two about computers.”  Down the road when either of those people have a computer project, they’ll think of me and give me a call.

Macro View
I set up a LinkedIn account. I introduce myself as Your Computer Lady but I’m going to talk about sports, make a joke about the rubber chicken, ask about Ron’s daughters, … …

Clear away the hype and fear of doing something new and social media is just plain old networking. You’re doing it on a grander scale (8 people at the dinner table vs 58 LinkedIn direct connections or 252,600+ with 3 levels of connection) but it is still networking.

Just like networking at an organization, networking online takes a little time. Joining a new organization means you’re seeing more new faces. You’re taking time to build the relationships. You’re gathering business cards and inputting them into your contact management system. But after those basics are done, maintaining the relationships is relatively easy and doesn’t require a lot of time. But you have to be consistent. If you only show up every six months, you’re always at square one. Once you’ve set up your online account and filled out your profile, started connecting with friends, you can switch to maintenance mode too. Show up once a week and respond to invitations, send some messages, add some info.

You want to use social media for the same reasons you network at a meeting. Get your name out there! Be viewed as an expert! We live in a big, high technology, information-explosion world. We want to – need to – connect with people. Social media gives your company the ability to do that. You can humanize your company. You can reach out person-to-person.

As Jennifer Maggiore of Maggiore Consulting pointed out, “There’s no penalty for being early to the game. But there is a big penalty for being late!”  eMarketer reports that there was an 11% increase in the use of social media in 2008. 41% of all Internet users visited a social media site at least monthly. They predict that 79 million people (40% of all Internet users) will put content at least once a month on a social media site in 2009.

Your firm can start small. Encourage your employees to participate. All of the Fortune 500 firms have social media activities. 499 of them have vice president level and above participants. But any employee can assist the cause. Whole Foods has tweeters from several stores in addition to their central page. Build your presence. There are firms like Maggiore’s that specialize in social media. If you need to get to more in depth, locate your target audience or increase your presence quickly – you want to contact a specialist. This is an emerging technology. A guide can get you to the destination faster.

If you’re early to the game though, you can take your time.
1. Choose one, maybe 2, networks to join and build.
2. Get that network to the maintenance stage before you take on another one.
3. Tie your networks together. A post on my blog shows up on my LinkedIn page. A Twitter message shows on my Facebook wall.
4. Measure your activity and success. There are tools like TwitterGrader that help you measure what you’re accomplishing.

My recommendation is to start with LinkedIn. It’s a pure business site that is simple to use. You can make good connections. Then add Twitter. Those little 140 character messages have potential. Check out twitter.com/JetBlue, /Whole Foods or /ScottsdalePD to see some business results. Yes, you can follow John McCain now too. Then expand into Facebook, Yelp or some of the other sites.

The Arizona Small Business Association is doing a series of social media classes in April and May. Check their web site for details.

Connect with me:
 www.LinkedIn.com/in/YourComputerLady
 @PamelaBir at Twitter
 Pamela Bir on Facebook